Just like a scene out of "Antiques Roadshow," a woman in Hartford, Conn., turned in an old rifle to her local police station's gun buy-back, only to discover the gun was worth anywhere from $20,000 to $25,000. The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, inherited the gun from her father who had brought it home with him from Europe as a memento from World War II.

The two officers conducting the gun buy-back, who are resident gun experts for the Hartford Police Department, informed the owner she was in possession of a Nazi Assault Rifle, the first of its kind, that dates back to 1944.

The gun is called a Sturmgewehr 44, literally meaning "storm rifle," and is the first "modern assault rifle ever made, eventually replaced by the AK 47 in 1947 by Russia, who copied the German design of the Sturmgewehr 44," Officer Lewis Crabtree, one of the two officers who discovered the gun, told ABC News.

"It's like finding the Babe Ruth of baseball cards," said Officer John Cavanna. "The rarity, it was made for such a very short period."

I’ve held a couple of these in my day. Sturdy platform and functionally similar to an AK, it doesn’t surprise me that any little old lady would think it “dangerous” if they’ve been conditioned to see “assault rifles” as such.

If it was a full-auto, depending on its pedigree and condition, it would fetch more than $25,000 without a problem.

6
posted on 12/11/2012 8:55:41 AM PST
by rarestia
(It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)

Uh, shouldn’t she have been arrested and charged with violation of the NFA? Maybe the batfe needs to be called in. Do the cops get an exemption from the NFA automatically just because they are cops? Must fall under a cover since they were doing it on behalf of the department. Inoperable at the time it was turned in but I’ll bet it wouldn’t take much for a good armorer to get her up and running. Like Red Jacket.

The cops in the video seem to be on the up-and-up. Also, if the owner took it back, you can bet BATF would be waiting to bust her. The PD will probably hand it off directly to a museum for her. In this case, they actually seem to be acting in this woman’s best interest.

That's part of the training: "How to pretend you aren't an A-hole in front of cameras." They are very good at adopting a "WTF" expression when you try to recover something. "Gun? What gun? Nobody here signed that reciept."

But I do believe you're correct that if she tried to take it home, the BATFE would have busted her for sure.

11
posted on 12/11/2012 9:22:50 AM PST
by Cyber Liberty
(Obama considers the Third World morally superior to the United States.)

I know an ATF agent. He was actually sickened the day he was required by law to confiscate a similar item form a citizen. His choice was to destroy it or ensconce in in the ATF private museum. Selling to a dealer or giving it to the National Firearms museum was not an option.

It’s amazing what one comes across. In 1982 I purchased an old used Japanese made pellet gun for $3. I never considered it to be of any value at at all until I ran across an identical one on ebay several weeks ago. I also didn’t know that it was one of the few CO2 pellet rifles made with an adjustment for chamber pressure, a feature I didn’t even know it had until I checked further. I now find that it’s worth about $700.

14
posted on 12/11/2012 9:35:03 AM PST
by BuffaloJack
(Children, pets, and slaves get taken care of. Free Men take care of themselves.)

Officer Crabtree is an honorable, honest man with whom I would prefer to deal if I have to deal with the police.

He is technically incorrect. While the SG44 and AK-47 are superficially similar (to my wife’s untrained eye, they are also indistinguishable from a flattop AR), their operating systems, internal architecture and other mechanical characteristics differ greatly.

28
posted on 12/11/2012 1:23:10 PM PST
by ExGeeEye
(I'll give y'all 90 days for the wounds to heal; then we start on 2014. Carpe GOP!)

I've heard of several incidents like this. There was one discussed here on FR a few months ago where the proverbial little old lady brought in her father's Tommy Gun. Apparently he'd been a hit man/enforcer back during Prohibition and had somehow managed to both elude police and keep the tool of his trade.

Sadly, it ended up getting melted down despite attempts by several museums to acquire it for their collections.

33
posted on 12/17/2012 11:27:18 PM PST
by Stonewall Jackson
( "I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.")

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